Record City was spearheaded by former
CBS-TV executive
James T. Aubrey, who produced this picture with what was then a visionary approach: it was recorded on much less expensive videotape instead of professional 35mm film. The edited tape was transferred to 35mm film for theaters and to 16mm film for television syndication and college showings. "Out of this may come a revolution," predicted Aubrey. "This picture would have cost one and a half [million] or twice as much if made on film by an independent company." Aubrey admitted that the production cost was "comfortably under $1 million" but would not disclose the actual figure. "The advantage of tape has always appealed to me. Now it is practical, since the tape-to-film transfer can be accomplished with no loss of quality to the normal viewer." This last statement wasn't strictly true, because film prints of
Record City betrayed their videotape origins and resembled
kinescopes of the 1960s—films photographed off of a television monitor. But speed was producer Aubrey's main concern—he avoided a three-month period of film-laboratory post-production and prepared the videotape master and the film negative in a few weeks' time, so he could open the film in theaters as a lightweight summertime comedy. Unfortunately for Aubrey, his distributor,
American International, held back the release until the fall of 1977.
Boxoffice magazine reported that "first showings" in Chicago were held on November 4, 1977. ==Reception==